Manic Mums Day: Little Birthdays, big deal!

Manic Mums Day: Little Birthdays, big deal!: So, primary school is 'double super', No 2 is 'the sweetest thing' and No 1 has had half an hour's homework every night since starting schoo...

Little Birthdays, big deal!

So, primary school is 'double super', No 2 is 'the sweetest thing' and No 1 has had half an hour's homework every night since starting school.   Life is very busy.

No 1 turned 5 at the end of August.  My lovely gastro bug (thanks for the 9lbs lost!) meant that a party on her actual birthday was out so it fell to the next weekend.  I finished work at 3, her party started at 4... I hadn't organised party game prizes or music...my journey is 45 minutes from work... I had to pick up a 'new' car before half 5...party finished at 6.  How to juggle?! 

Sweating profusely, I zoomed through Asda, grabbing paper, stickytape and prizes... rocketed on towards the party, got there to find hubsy and No 1 heading into a toilet - her still in school uniform, he carrying a bag.  Jeez!!  So, soft play party, sweaty and undignified...No 2 is clearly the fastest baby in the West, randomly disappearing in bizarre locations as soon as your eye was off her...

Headed off, got new car, got back in time for food and games, parents all arrived to collect kiddies and I got home, slumped in a chair and sighed that deep sigh of relief.

Working and birthday parties.  Fun!

Manic Mums Day: Gastro-diet

Manic Mums Day: Gastro-diet: So the first two weeks back at work have passed. Felt very organised, very efficient, very prepared - week one that is. All was well. The ...

Gastro-diet

So the first two weeks back at work have passed.  Felt very organised, very efficient, very prepared - week one that is. All was well.  The kiddiewinkles didn't appear to lack much in my absence, though Number 1 still manages to do good guilt with her protestations of missing me.  Number 2 was her usual raucous self, stomping about like the world's smallest zombie.  End of week 1 - pick up girls from the childminder.  They nap.  They wake up vomiting.
Oh no.
Oh yes.
Number two vomits all over the living room - TV, carpets, inside her toys...everywhere conceivable.  Hubsy almost vomits at the vomit.  So, I dutifully spend about an hour cleaning. 

Number one starts vomiting upstairs - carpets, bed, walls, toys... oh yes.  My house reeks of sick.  Bicarb sprinkled, Febreze sprayed, bleached and anti-bac'd out.  No2 recovers, No1 lingers...sick Saturday, little bit on Sunday, (school starts on Tuesday...)... Monday - back at the childminder, no vomiting... until, driving to the shops, No 1 redecorates the inside of the car and herself.  But she feels much better now, apparently!  Joy.  What to do?  Miss the first ever day of primary school?  Send her anyway?  She coped with the childminder for a full day - will 2 hours of school kill her? 
So, pale and cute in her uniform, she is duly packed off to school.  And I managed not to cry - not sure how I did that...

Suddenly not feeling so good.
And then I get it.  Vomit.  Tuesday spent in bed, sweating, feverish.  Wednesday the same.  Ditto Thursday.  Friday (today) didn't spend all day sleeping but my brief venture out with hubsy to buy No1 a birthday card for tomorrow left me tired, out of breath and listless. 

So, I have so far tripled my absence rate of last year.  I haven't made it to my important job.  That gives me guilt.  I haven't been able to organise anything for my darling daughter's big fifth birthday, nor can we have anyone over to the (as yet) un-decontaminated house of plague. Double guilt.  And then some more.  I can't spend time with No2, who, of course, doesn't understand - guilto guilto guilto!!
So much for the working mum having it all - this week I've managed to have nothing.

And No1 isn't too happy that next week she has to go to school all week either - it means (apparently) she can't go for lunch or shopping!  Little girls...

Manic Mums Day: I'm back...

Manic Mums Day: I'm back...: "Back from my holidays and ready to blog once again! I have done all the relaxing I can do and now it's time for DIY... There's nothing li..."

I'm back...

Back from my holidays and ready to blog once again!

I have done all the relaxing I can do and now it's time for DIY...
There's nothing like coming back from really nice surroundings to make you want to drop a bomb on your toy infested, fingerprint covered, chocolate smeared home.  And to top it all, the next door neighbour (whose overgrown garden has always made you feel better about yourself) has now gone cute and pretty in the garden design...argh...

Every parent's nightmare

Last night I started watching 'The Killing' with darling hubsy - we do like a bit of crime drama.  Being a touch on the hormonal side, I felt myself welling up at parts, just imagining how awful the situation would be.  Losing a child - there are no words...

Today, watching the footage in Norway, I can only imagine the horror of all those parents whose children are on Utoya Island.  It brings back memories of Dunblane, Columbine and the nightmare moments when you wake up in a sweat in the middle of the night and have to creep in and take some time to watch your own children breath, deep in peaceful sleep. 

I'm not a religious person but tonight a quiet word will go to the Big Man for children here, there and everywhere and for parents who have to face that paralysing nightmare for real.